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Wednesday, August 17, 2016

In a likely attempt at swaying more users away from its competition, Microsoft is making big changes to their Bing Rewards program. As announced via their Microsoft Rewards Promotional page, Microsoft will be re-branding Bing Rewards to Microsoft Rewards and adding a few new incentives as well as a few other wrinkles to the mix!

As with Bing Rewards, you’ll still earn points for searching with Bing, but soon you’ll be able to earn those rewards in more (and faster according to Microsoft!) ways. For starters they are upping the amount of points/rewards you earn just for searching. There is also an additional incentive for those of you that chose to search and browse the web with Microsoft Edge. You'll get more points for each search as well as points for every hour of active browsing, up to 30 hours a month. The new Microsoft Rewards program also offers points for every purchase made from Microsoft stores. There you'll earn at least 1 point for every $1 spent—just make sure to stay signed in with your Microsoft account.

One major downside to using Bing for rewards will be that Windows 10's diagnostic and telemetry technology must be enabled to be awarded for browsing points. In terms of what is collected, Microsoft didn't mention much. They simply state that the browse & earn program collects the amount of active browsing time on Microsoft Edge to credit your account and refer users to their Microsoft Privacy Statement.

For those of you that currently participate in the Bing Rewards program, your membership will automatically update in the next few weeks. Your current points will all be transferred over to the new points system with one credit in Bing Rewards is equivalent to 10 points in Microsoft Rewards. Your point balance in Bing Rewards will be multiplied by 10 when your membership is updated to Microsoft Rewards.

With this change Microsoft is going to offer Level 2 members a discount of 10% on rewards from Microsoft brands, as well as access to exclusive offers. We'll also see more Microsoft based rewards with promotions including Microsoft branded products, Xbox games and rewards cards as well as more Microsoft branded product giveaways. Microsoft Rewards will continue to offer gift cards from third parties, like Amazon and Starbucks, on a promotional basis.